


Stay Awake (Get Out, You're Safe)

by Aston (orphan_account)



Series: Inspired by Songs [1]
Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Teenagers, Bad Boy Michael, Calum and Michael live together, Protective Ashton, Protective Calum, Protective Michael, Shy Luke, Teenage Rebellion, drop out calum, thrown out, unsupportive parents
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-13
Updated: 2016-12-13
Packaged: 2018-09-08 06:26:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8833876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/Aston
Summary: Luke's always felt off. The memories he has don't fit his cookie cutter life, and eventually, he just accepts that they haven't happened. Until he meets Ashton, and everything starts to fall into place.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Started writing this one based on Stay Awake (Dreams Only Last For A Night) by All Time Low

Luke had memories that he couldn't make fit anywhere in the rest of his life.

Little flashes, nothing huge that stood out unless he focused on it.

A blinding smirk, a guiding hand on his back. Someone taking the fall for him to give him time to _fucking run, Hemmings, for fuck's sakes!_

But none of these memories would fit.

He had a normal life, two older brothers, two loving but busy parents, and a cookie-cutter life. He faded into the background at school, wasn't in any clubs or sports.

So these memories stood out. They just wouldn't fall into place in his life.

* * *

"Hey Luke,"

Luke smiled faintly in greeting at the girl who spoke to him as he moved to his seat in English.

_"They're all so boring, why do you entertain them?"_

Luke rolled his eyes, head down, as the familiar sentence echoed in his head. It was one of those moments that stood out in his memories, not fitting anywhere.

Class started soon after and gave Luke something to focus on.

* * *

Luke sat off by himself for lunch, music playing through headphones.

Someone walked by about then - curly blond hair and mischievous hazel eyes - and Luke gave a smile in response to their wave. 

Once they sat across from him, Luke hesitated before taking the headphones out. "No lunch?"

Luke shrugged in response to the question. He hadn't bothered getting lunch, having not felt hungry with the snippets of memories assaulting his thoughts.

A quiet nod, then he disappeared.

Luke watched him go before humming softly to himself.

But he came back with an armload of stuff from the vending machines and grinned. "Can't have you going hungry." This was said with such a teasing tone that Luke grinned in response to the words. "I'm Ashton, by the way."

_"Ash, c'mon, man. We gotta get going if we're gonna finish this shit tonight!"_

Luke blinked in surprise before smiling again. "Luke," he offered with a shrug, forgoing a handshake in favor of grabbing a bag of crisps.

A soft laugh followed this, but nothing more was said.

* * *

" _I swear it'll be amazing and you'll never want to waste your nights asleep again,"_

Luke almost groaned when the snippet of a memory came through his mind just as he was trying to fall asleep.

It'd been about a week since Ashton started hanging around him at school, keeping him eating at lunch and discussing anything and everything under the sun.

It's been two days since they exchanged numbers.

He glanced over to see his phone lit up with a message from the other boy and smiled fondly.

_cant sleep. sup?_

Luke rolled his eyes at the simple text, but responded anyway, knowing he'd regret it come morning.

He didn't fall asleep until well after midnight, and he suffered through the school day without a word.

Ashton never showed up, just text him around one apologizing for missing, but that he'd had an emergency come up.

Luke just sent him an 'It's okay, hope everything's fine' message back and continued about his day as if nothing happened.

* * *

The weekends were always especially dull for Luke. At least with school there was some nice excitement in the form of his conversations with Ashton now.

But Saturdays were still bland. Boring. A sad constant in his life.

And so, he pushed himself out to the park a few blocks away from home, hoping that maybe a change of scenery would help break the monotonous feeling looming over him.

Ashton was there, grinning, by the time Luke reached the park. "Luke!"

Luke looked up in surprise to see Ashton grinning, laid across two other people - one dark skinned, black hair and eyes, and the other pale with green eyes and vibrant red hair. "Hi, Ashton." Luke greeted hesitantly, seeming stuck between walking away and joining them.

Ashton got up and literally drug him over. "This is Calum and Michael. Guys, this is Luke."

Michael was the one who spoke. "Nice to meet you. You're the one Ash has spoke about? The goodie-goodie that he met at school?"

Luke's eyes widened at that voice - it was the voice that was always in his memories. "I..."

Ashton gave Michael a look. "Mikey! Shush!"

" _Mikey, c'mon, you're better than this. Fucking **fight!** You can't let these fuckers win!"_

Luke immediately looked down, slightly started by the flash of a memory that came through right then.

Calum was watching quietly, seeming confused for a moment before understanding lit in his eyes and he gave a small smile. "He's like I was," he said, looking to Ashton, then Michael, then back to Luke. "Out of place memories. Things that didn't fit into a picture perfect life."

Luke immediately looked up, meeting brown eyes, his own blue wide and disbelieving.

Ashton gave Michael a knowing look and nodded away from the two.

Michael nodded and got up, disappearing with Ashton following closely.

Luke didn't notice. Calum did.

Once they were gone, out of their way, Calum spoke. "You haven't pieced any of them into full blown memories have you?"

"A few of Ashton, things that have happened since I met him that make sense now." Luke offered with a shrug. "I recognized Michael's voice, his nickname...but..."

Calum gave a faint smile. "Doing better than I did then." he offered. "Let's get you calm, then we'll head back to Mikey and my place, we'll work it out on paper for you, send you home with a notebook to start keeping this all straight for you."

"Thank you," Luke said, surprise dripping from his words.

* * *

The house that Michael and Calum shared was small, but had enough room for them and visitors. It was cozy and eccentric and it fit them, Luke thought.

He felt right at home with them there, which was weird. He was never at home in new surroundings.

Calum directed him to one of the beanbag chairs in the living room, then handed him a spiral notebook and an entire basket of different colored pens and markers. "I'll let you write it out, we'll help you get it in order, though."

Luke nodded in agreement, quickly shifting through the pens and grabbing a black one and a red one.

Calum smiled faintly at the familiar scene. "Where do you want to start?"

Luke was quiet as he started writing. "Things that have happened since meeting Ash, and now you guys."

"Is it mostly speech or...?" Michael asked curiously. "It was mostly speech with Cal."

Luke nodded in agreement, not questioning how easily they accepted this strange event.

"Even recently, whenever I've gotten these flashes of memories that haven't happened, it's been mostly speech."

Luke glanced at Calum in surprise. "Still happen?"

Calum gave a calm smile. "Meeting you was one, doing this was one." he offered. "But never full memories. I remembered your eyes and voice."

Luke nodded, continuing to write.

"I'm not allowed to actually tell you the memories am I?" he asked warily.

Calum smiled faintly. "You can. If you have the memories now, they'll happen anyway. Besides, if it's just speech, then it doesn't affect anything."

"What was the one you remembered at the park?" Michael questioned, curious despite himself. "I recognized the look you had."

Luke glanced at him before he looked down and shook his head. "Ashton said something. To you." he responded with a shrug, not wanting to repeat what had gone through his head. He didn't know what happened to cause it but it scared him beyond belief to think of anything bad happening to these three.

Nobody pressed.

* * *

In the end, he didn't share his memories. Just asked opinions on how to organize it.

"Honestly, context is good, but you likely don't have many. I'll assume you already organize based on if it's speech or not. I'd suggest, after that, to organize it based on what sort of situation." Calum suggested.

Luke nodded in agreement, settling down to do just that as the others talked.

He had to go home for dinner before he finished, but Calum sent the notebook and pens with him and drove him home, jotting his and Michael's numbers down in the back of the notebook for him.

"Thanks," Luke said softly before getting out of the car.

* * *

"Who was that, sweetie?"

Luke glanced up at his mom at dinner. "Huh?"

"Who dropped you off?"

Luke gave a faint smile. "Friend from school," he offered with a shrug.

No one pressed any further about it, and Luke smiled to himself as he settled into his food.

* * *

_Have fun at school.  
_

_-C &M_

Luke smiled faintly at his phone Monday morning when he saw this from Calum's number.

Ashton was waiting in the living room when he came downstairs, dressed in a pair of nice blue jeans and a polo shirt, and he wrinkled his nose at Luke. "Dressed smart, then?"

Luke shrugged, taking in Ashton's black skinny jeans and scuffed sneakers, a neat hoodie over him.

Luke was quick to finish getting ready and walked with Ashton to school, listening to him chatter about something.

* * *

"Mikey's finally here again!" Ashton said happily as they entered the school grounds to see bright red hair and mischievous green eyes waiting for them against the wall closest to them.

"Ash. Luke." Michael said in greeting.

Luke glanced at Michael in surprise, suddenly feeling overdressed.

The red haired boy was dressed in tattered skinny jeans and scuffed up leather boots, a cut up band shirt layered underneath a faded flannel with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows.

Michael noticed and smirked before shaking his head. "We've gotta do something about these clothes," he told Luke, then looked to Ashton. "Think we could get him some shit to shove in his bag, if his family's strict about it?"

"We'll do that this weekend," Ashton promised.

Michael grinned at Luke. "Make up a good excuse," he told the blond before he disappeared off into the school building.

"Don't expect to see him here often. He gets suspended pretty often," Ashton told Luke as they walked towards their classes.

Luke nodded in understanding.

* * *

One thing Luke could say was that his life got a lot more exciting after he started hanging out with Ashton and Michael at school.

He wasn't invisible anymore.

Because Michael wasn't invisible and he drug Ashton and Luke into anything he wanted to do. As long as it wouldn't get them in trouble.

But that weekend, Calum came to get Luke and gave a kind smile to his parents as he waited for Luke to get his shoes from his room.

A pair of nice black skinny jeans and sneakers, plus a footie jersey gave him the appearance of just a nice friend from school, and Luke didn't correct them.

"It was nice to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Hemmings!" Calum said as he lead Luke to the car.

As soon as they had parked at Calum's, the Maori boy pulled the jersey off to reveal his own cut up band shirt. "It's Mikey's," he said with a shrug when Luke gave him an amused look.

Michael and Ashton joined them, both in states of distress, and pulled Luke inside as Calum sat in the car. "Be nice to him, now."

Luke didn't question it, just let the boys push him onto the bed to sit in Michael's room.

Soon, he had a pair of ripped up skinny jeans on with his sneakers, and Michael threw him one of Ashton's shirts that had been left over a while back.

Luke pulled it on and gave a wry smile.

* * *

The mall with the other three was an event.

Luke was half dead before they'd even started actually shopping. Instead, they'd settled in to exploring the mall and chattering away with one another.

"Alright. Now. Let's get you a nice wardrobe." Calum said with a grin. "Starting with shoes, we'll work up. It's on us. You'll pay us back by sticking with us, letting those memories of yours happen."

Luke went to argue, but Ashton shook his head and pulled him off.

* * *

Two hours into actually shopping and they stopped for a break.

"How much of that can you sneak in?" Ashton asked curiously.

"Some of it won't have to be sneaked in." Luke pointed out. "But...probably not much."

"We'll get about half of it in. The rest can stay at our place," Calum promised.

Luke smiled faintly in response to this. "Thanks."

* * *

True to his word, Calum did manage to help get about half of it all into Luke's room and hid away.

"Hope today wasn't too overwhelming. We do want you to stay with us, after all."

Luke shrugged with a smile. "It was fun," he said.

"I'm glad you thought so."

* * *

It took a little over a month for Luke's life to be turned on it's head.

Within that month, he met and made friends with Calum, Michael, and Ashton. He'd gone shopping for a new wardrobe and was going behind his parents back to dress how he wanted to.

And now? Now was the moment that was going to take it out of the shadows and into the light for everyone to see.

He was with the other three at a tattoo and piercing shop the next town over.

"You sure you want to do this?" Calum asked worriedly as Luke looked around. "You don't have to do this."

Ashton glanced over from where him and Michael were talking quietly.

Luke nodded in agreement. "I know."

Michael grinned at Luke. "So what are you gonna get?"

Luke gave him a look before he grinned as well. "Lip piercing," he offered with a shrug. "I've always wanted one."

Ashton smiled fondly at this, and Michael nodded, excitement filling his eyes.

* * *

The ride back to town after was quiet. 

Michael was happy with his new eyebrow piercing and Luke kept playing with his new lip ring, still slightly surprised he'd actually gone through with it.

* * *

"What the hell is that?!"

Michael flinched from where he was in the car when he heard Luke's mom scream that out from inside the house.

Calum was quiet, looking pale. "I shouldn't have let him go through with it." he said quietly.

"Memory?" Michael asked.

Calum nodded. "They throw him out. It's why we haven't left."

Ashton scowled, but got ready to go help Luke pack.

The other two did the same.

As soon as Luke called Ashton, the three were out of the car and inside to help Luke pack.

"Don't worry about it Penguin, you'll move in with us," Michael said, hugging Luke tightly once they were in the boy's room. 

Ashton didn't say anything, just started folding clothes from the closet and putting them into an overnight bag he had in the bottom of the closet.

"Cal, get the dresser," he said, setting the bag on the bed. "Luke, Mikey, anything else."

Luke pushed Michael back and pulled his laptop out, then grabbed the charger, plus the one for his phone. He stuffed them in the overnight bag as well, then grabbed his bookbag and shoved the notebook and pens that Calum had given him for the memories into it, moving to grab at some boxes from the top of his closet while Ashton was out of the way.

Michael helped him go through that, and soon, a few random notebooks had joined the contents of his bookbag. The last thing to be packed in it were his headphones, then it was zipped up.

* * *

Over all, they left the place with a single box, plus the overnight bag and bookbag. 

Michael came out last with another box - Luke's bed covers were packed into it and placed in the back of the car as well.

"Sorry this happened," he said, throwing an arm around the blonde.

Luke shrugged in response. "Knew it would happen,"

Michael sighed, but contented himself to cuddle Luke on the drove home.

Unpacking was just as depressing as packing it all up.

Calum didn't say a word until it was all over. "For what it's worth...you're always welcome here."

" _Don't ever think yourself unwanted, Luke! You're wonderful, probably the best one of us. You haven't been tainted like us."_

That was Calum's voice in his memories and Luke immediately wrote it down before crossing the room to hug Calum. "Thank you," he said quietly. 


	2. Chapter 2

Luke learned almost immediately that living with Calum and Michael was a wreck and a half on what patience he had.

He woke up for school to hear someone playing around on guitar in the living room and came out of his room to go about getting ready to face the day.

Michael glanced up from his perch on the couch, electric guitar across his lap and pulled into an amp at the edge of the room by the couch, only to grin at Luke's disgruntled state. "Thought waking up to music might be better than going in and pouncing on you to wake you up."

Luke hummed in agreement, immediately turning around and going to dig clothes out of his room.

* * *

Overall, the early wake up call was a good thing, because Luke was barely ready when Ashton showed up and Michael started yelling to hurry up. 

As soon as he joined them in the kitchen, Michael grinned. "How you feeling?"

"Tired, don't push it," Luke warned, giving Michael a dark look for his energetic personality being there so early.

Ashton laughed, pulling the two out to start the trip to school. 

* * *

"Luke, what happened to you?"

Luke glanced up from where he was writing something down in the corner of a piece of blank paper to see one of the girls from his English class standing there, staring in surprise.

Ashton and Michael joined him right about then, keeping silent when they saw Luke glance down at what he was wearing before throwing a grin up to the girl.

"I got tired of playing by everyone else's rules," he commented with a shrug.

Michael laughed, eyes bright in response to this. "Knew it," he said, looking to Ashton.

* * *

All in all, the memories slowly began to fall into place and make sense, and whenever it happened, Luke made note of it in the notebook he had. 

And slowly, as he adjusted to life with Michael and Calum as housemates, they started suggesting things that he never would've agreed to if he were still living with his family.

"There's a show a couple towns over tonight," Michael told Ashton and Luke one Friday at lunch. "I've already asked Calum about it, and he's all for the four of us going and just having some fun,"

Ashton shrugged, then nodded. "I'll tell my mom that I'm staying over with you guys," he offered.

Luke smiled faintly, shrugging when Michael looked to him.

"Oh c'mon Penguin! It'll be fun!" Michael said, giving him a pleading look.

Luke rolled his eyes, ignoring the sinking feeling in his gut. "Fine. But promise me you'll be careful, stay where we can see you at all times," he said, blue eyes showing his concern as he watched Michael.

Quiet fell over the group before Michael spoke. "One of the memories finished itself didn't it? Before you've lived it.."

Luke said nothing, just gave a half smile, black metal of his lip ring glinting under the lights of the school cafeteria.

"I won't go off alone," Michael promised. "Not that it'll do anything to keep the memory from happening, but at least if you guys are there where you can help, it'll limit how bad it gets, right?"

Luke nodded in agreement, hoping for the sake of the life he'd built that that was how this was going to work.

He didn't ever want to see Michael get so hurt that he completely shut down the way he feared the memory would cause.

* * *

Luke learned fast that playing with fate wasn't an easy task. 

Michael still got beat pretty badly at the show, even with Ashton staying with him.

In the hospital waiting room, Luke was more than a nervous wreck as the three waited on news on what was happening to Michael in the back.

Calum was quiet, mostly because he didn't know how to help, how to fix Luke's unstable emotions in that moment. He understood why it was this way, but this was the first memory that Luke had lived through that he had tried to downsize the danger and it had worked, slightly. Just not enough for him to be happy.

"Don't blame yourself," Ashton said quietly after a moment. "We all knew something bad was going to happen, thanks to you. That probably saved his ass,"

Luke nodded, but didn't raise his gaze from the floor.

He didn't look up until a doctor came out to give them news on Michael.

"He'll be just fine. A little shaky, maybe. But it was fast thinking on  all your parts. You saved his life tonight,"

Calum had never seen Luke cry, but he immediately decided he didn't like it when the blond boy broke down in tears as soon as the doctor had given them Michael's room number and left.

"I'll go tell him that you two will join us in a minute," Ashton offered with a sigh.

Calum nodded, immediately settling to calm Luke down.

It didn't keep the boy from wrapping Michael in a tight hug as soon as they were all in the boy's room.

Michael gave a weak laugh in response. "Never knew you cared this much, Luke," he joked into the blonde boy's hair.

* * *

They all skipped the first three days of school that week, explaining the situation as a medical emergency. 

Calum wasn't overly pleased about the situation, but he allowed it because it seemed to help.


End file.
